As has been exhaustivelydocumentedhere, much to the displeasure of his core fanbase of men's rights activists, truthers, and racists, Fox Sports 1 pundit/middling professional fighter Chael Sonnen is a shitbag, or at least someone willing to play one on television for money, which amounts to the same thing. The whole key to his routine is plausible deniability: sure, he might act like a boorish asshole, but aren't you really just seeing things that aren't there? And even if not, it's all an act anyway, right? No need to take everything so seriously.

So anyway, he went on Fox Sports Live last night to talk about Floyd Mayweather and, to emphasize a dumb point, said, "I've never seen anybody in the history of America get so rich and so famous off of having complete wimps throwing punch at their faces. I know what you're saying. You're saying, 'Well, it's happened before, what about Rihanna?'"

All his co-panelists laughed as if he were some society doyenne who'd just made a risqué provocation at a cocktail party. A smirking Sonnen then turned to Gary Payton, who was braying like a jackass, and said, "Too soon? Was it too soon?"

I'd explain what the problem is here for Sonnen's core fanbase of men's rights activists, truthers, and racists, but the idea that anyone would have to do so is just unbelievably depressing. We've reached out to Fox for comment and will update if we hear back.

UPDATE: Fox Sports sends over the following statement:

FOX Sports regrets the comments Chael Sonnen made during last night's edition of FOX Sports Live. They were an inappropriate attempt at humor that Sonnen acknowledges shouldn’t have been made and he apologizes to anyone who may have been offended by his remarks.